UNC Medical School resident working to increase diversity in healthcare

Danae Smart said growing up she never had a Black physician. It’s a common experience for many minorities, one that Smart is hoping she can help change.

Smart is currently a second-year family medicine resident with the UNC School of Medicine. She created Healthcare Sparks during her early years of med school.

She got the idea after she lost a family member to gun violence.

“I started thinking about the brevity of life, and it was a little hard for me to grapple with. I started thinking about my accomplishments and what I’ve done, and I wanted to make a difference in the community,” Smart shared.

Smart then created an interactive booklet, specifically geared toward underrepresented communities, that served as an interactive lesson plan to help med students volunteer and encourage youth to pursue careers in medicine and STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields. The cover depicts a young Black girl walking through a doorway as she grows up to become a doctor.

“I created the booklet so students that do want to give back, have time and resources without feeling like they have to come up with a lesson plan,” explained Smart.

The downloadable booklets feature activities about different procedures including crosswords, word searches and questionnaires.

“The booklet has around 13 sessions. There are different topics like cardiology and pulmonology,” Smart shared. “We even have topics about social determinants of health to try and introduce students to that early.”

She continued, “At the end of each chapter there is a session with providers of color, so they will get to see someone who looks like them. I also put salary ranges so they could maybe get encouraged by the salary they could get in the future.”

Smart explained medical students are also encouraged to be honest about the degree requirements for various positions.

The program first launched in California while Smart was attending medical school at Loma Linda University.

After seeing its success there, Smart said she is eager to continue growing the program in North Carolina.

“My goal is to expand to as many states as possible,” said Smart. “We’ve done work with Culbreth Middle School in Chapel Hill, and I did reach out to the Boys & Girls Club in Durham, so I’m hoping to get started there.”

Smart said she knows increasing representation in healthcare will take time, but she hopes the program will encourage youth to take the first steps.

“Long term, I would love to be able to create scholarships for students too and almost a pipeline so that once they start the program, hopefully they’d be able to create mentorship with the medical students they’re working with,” Smart expressed.

Anyone interested in learning more about volunteering or supporting the program is encouraged to visit healthcaresparks.org.